Mulesaw: December 2021

It is nice to find out that someone apparently have noticed that I have started to blog again, though I much prefer regular readers and comments from those instead of all those fake comments that once in a while seem to flood in.

Today I had 37 comments, all pretty much using the same words, and all completely irrelevant to the blog post where the comment was posted.

It seems that Ted McGraths 16000 woodworking plans have changed its name to woodbex. I guess it is the same scam, and I sincerely doubt that all the plans are some that he made himself.

Here's an earlier warning about the site from woodworkweb.

I guess I'm not alone in once in a while seeing something nice and wondering, wow, I'd like to know if there is a plan available for that. But I think there's a much better chance of finding that out if people ask in the comments field about it - rather than forking out 67 $ to a scammer and risk that maybe that plan isn't part of the 16000.

If you want to make chairs there are several well respected chairmakers out there who has got plans for sale, heck I think some of them even wrote a book about making chairs. Get those plan in a legal way instead of being part of a scam.

The same goes with a bunch of other stuff. Popular Woodworking and Fine Woodworking all have made great plans, if you haven't got the issue and can't borrow it at the library, well, then pay the amount of money the publisher would like for a back issue, and then go on and build a set of barristers bookcases with a good conscience.

Truth be told, I didn't read all those 37 comments today, I kind of stopped after reading the comment that was posted on my post about building a coffin for my dad.

That comment read something like: I built something similar with help from ...
Hmmm, I bet you did!

Stay safe for New Years Eve, don't drink and drive, use safety glasses and DONT support the scam sites

All ready for Christmas Eve in Brooklyn

(Would you buy a used woodworking plan from this person??)

We had made a draft of who should give who Christmas presents on board. And my recipient had earlier on wished for a belt, so I made a nice wide belt that would fit in a set of jeans for her. I decided that I could make a keepsake box for her as well. That way it would also be easier to make a decent gift wrapping. :-)

I found a piece of birch that I had milled a couple of years ago, and I decided that it would be a fine material. I have never really worked birch before, other than for firewood, so I thought that it would be interesting to do a nice little project with it.

I settled on some measurements that looked fine to me and would enable me to make the panels for the lid and bottom without gluing anything up.
the board was first crosscut into some manageable lengths and then planed to the desired thickness.

The sides were ripped to the correct width and I made a groove on for the lid and the bottom, so that I could assemble the box completely and later on divide it on the table saw.

I laid out some dovetails and took into account that 1/8" would be removed from one of the sets when I reopened the box. I just made regular through dovetails, and after dry assembling the sides I measured for the lid and bottom and made those too. those received a rabbet going all the way around, so they could seat in the grooves of the sides once assembled.

After the glue had dried, I planed the protruding parts of the dovetails flush with the rest, and sanded the box lightly. I adjusted the table saw to nearly the depth of the material, so that when I separated the box I would not risk any movement or binding. I could just as well have glued in some small blocks of wood on the inside prior to assembly, but I chose the other route this time. The final separation was done with a Japanese pull saw.

I made some dust seal strips that would be mounted inside the bottom of the box. These all received an angled cut near the upper part. The depth of the cut was close to 1/32", just the same as the thickness of the fabric that I would use to line the box with.

The dust seals were glued in place, and I installed some small brass hinges that I once got from my brother in japan. I decided that I didn't want to ad a lock to the box, so from that point on it was just ~~downhill~~ smooth sailing. (The Danish expression downhill apparently means something different in English :-) )

I gave the box three coats of shellac with a rubbing of steel wool in between each layer. After the final layer I lightly rubbed with steel wool again, and then gave the surface a coat of wax.

Some years ago I ordered a length of baize from Hainsworth in England. This is the fabric that was originally used in gun cases and such. Due to various reasons I never have gotten around to test it before now, and I have to say that it is an incredibly nice material!

It looks way better than any of my earlier attempts using hobby felt which is actually a synthetic instead of real wool. The baize has a beautiful dark holly colour and it is much more firm so it is easier to cut and position inside the box.

Based on information that I once read on the "pegs and tails blog", baize was traditionally glued using glue made from wheat flour.
So armed with this information I found a recipe for wheat flour and started. the recipe called for 1 part of flour to 4 parts of cold water. The flour is mixed thoroughly with the cold water and the mixture is then brought to boil and left to boil while stirred until it thickens.
The glue worked a lot better than I had anticipated, and in a short time the keepsake box was complete.